Sindh: Ownership of twin islands questioned again

[Naveed Yaseen]

KARACHI: The issue of ownership of the twin islands, Bandal and Buddo, resurfaced on Monday between the Sindh government and the Port Qasim Authority (PQA), after a gap of more than a year.

The matter was discussed at a meeting held at the office of Sindh Chief Secretary Fazlur Rehman, which was attended by representatives of the PQA and the provincial government, Federal Law Secretary Justice Agha Rafiq Ahmed and the attorney general. No official handout was issued, however, official sources said that it was the final meeting on the issue and the attorney general will submit his report to Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani very soon. The sources claimed that both the parties, the provincial government and the PQA, remained adamant on their earlier claims. They said that the prime minister will issue directives in light of the attorney general’s findings and that it was unclear whether an agreement made by the previous government with a Dubai based firm will be implemented or not.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was singed in May 2006 by the then federal and provincial government authorities, including then Federal Minister for Ports and Shipping Babar Ghauri and Sindh Minister for Mines and Minerals Irfanullah Marwat. Under the MoU, the Dubai based company had offered to develop the ‘Diamond Bar Island’ over 12,000 acres of the twin islands, at an estimated cost of $ 43 billion.

The firm would have built residential villas and apartments, hotels, shopping centers, commercial centers, a golf course, hospitals, clinics, schools, technical institutions, universities, marina, resorts, theme parks and co-generation plants. It was also to construct a six to eight lane highway linking the proposed Diamond Bar Island City with the mainland.

The provincial government claims that it had provided around 13,635 acres of land to the Port Qasim Authority (PQA) on September 21, 1973 for development of the port and no island was part of the agreement. The PQA, however, claims that it has ownership rights over the land, including the two islands.

Then Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad had tried to resolve the dispute between the PQA and the Sindh government, holding various meetings on the issue, but they too were unable to reach a conclusion. The government high ups had even planned to have the foundation stone of the project laid by former president General (Retd.) Pervez Musharraf in January 2007 but the proposal could not materialize due to reservations expressed by the provincial revenue department, civil society organizations and political parties.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...08_pg12_11